USDA Time-Use Studies

Many and various are the duties of the homemaker

-- Wilson, Maud (1929). Use of Time by Oregon Homemakers. Oregon State Agricultural College. Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin, Number 256, p. 41

The Purnell Act of 1925 provided federal funding to conduct "economic and sociologic investigations as have as their purpose the development and improvement of the rural home and rural life, and for printing and disseminating the result of said researches."

The study was named, "The Present Use of Time by Homemakers."

In response, the Bureau of Home Economics started systematic investigations into the types of tasks that were being performed by homemakers, along with the amount of time it took to complete them.

This section surveys the methods and results of what has been called the USDA Time-Use Studies.